Teacher layoff by merit hits roadblock

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's effort to gain the authority under state law to order teacher layoffs based on merit rather than seniority stalled Tuesday as lawmakers refused to review the proposal.
The bill passed late Tuesday in the Republican-controlled Senate won't be considered by the Assembly, said the chamber's speaker, Sheldon Silver. Meanwhile, Gov. ...

One comment

If “merit” is supposed to be gauged by student achievement, by calculating test scores let’s say, each term’s class will have its own class culture and therefore can and often will have highly different academic results as compared to the class immediately prior or the class that comes immediately after.

Therfore, this concept of merit is invalid and should NOT be used as a measure of teacher merit.

Bloomberg could not care less about this fact. In his mind, once you put a number on something, you’ve evaluated it, case closed and mind closed.